MN Wild 2016-17 – Official thread.

biggill wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
Perhaps Pominville gets bought out and a couple of these guys land on entry level deals next year that could help the salary cap situation.

What would you want to do with that extra cap space? I obviously haven’t looked at what other wild players need to be signed, but I can’t imagine there’s anyone else out there that would have much more value than Pomminville. At least you know what you’re getting.

I wouldn’t be disappointed if they bought him out though.

if knowing what you’re getting is next to nothing I guess that’s a good thing. ;-). I would rather roll 3 “rooks” than him. We could roll Ek, Tuch and Greenway and still have money left after hiring Pominville out… He is the one player that frustrates the crap out of me. He is in prime position and misses the net or goes through the motions like he is working hard but really isn’t. He’s a joke.

Does Pomonville have a no movement clause? It would be nice to not have to waste a spot on the protected list on him.

I have a feeling a lot of fans aroind the NHL are going to be bitching after the expansion draft. I also think Vegas will be a flop. I wouldnt be surprised to see it fold within 5 years. To me the whole thing stinks of a money grab.

I am pretty sure that Poms has a no move clause so he cannot be exposed in the expansion draft.
IDK the Vegas thing just may work but I doubt you will see them develop a real loyal fan base. They will fill seats from high rollers in town with comped tickets but real hockey fans might be few and far between.

We are heading in to that point in the season where in the last couple years we would have streaks of the other kind, hopefully this little west coast swing does not derail the way they have played in December. And we are 1pt out of first with 4 games in hand.

Just a little food for thought here on the streak Columbus is on.
Their streak is longer than the win totals for, Buffalo, New York Islanders(tie), New Jersey, Colorado, and Arizona.

I just don’t see the Wild going through the mid-season dive that they did in the past 3 years. There was just something “off” about the Wild under Mike Yeo that is thankfully absent now. This is a much more focused and I’d argue a much more consistent team in terms of both stats and play.

Boudreau seems to be much better at managing team attitudes and keeping the individual performances at a much more consistent level. I’m hoping that that combination = no more mid-season collapses followed by having to play playoff hockey just to make the playoffs with an exhausted and spent team.

Question: Isn’t there a limit to how many players can be grabbed from a single team during the expansion draft?

Grouse

Grouse, from what I have read all teams must expose 8 skaters and a goalie. Players with a no movement clause are exempt along with first year and second year players.

Here is a where I have been getting my info.

https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-expansion-draft-rules/c-281010592

You can only lose one player, which is good.

A few thoughts. I don’t know if they have any rules against Las Vegas turning around and trading any of these players, but their should be.

I think it is really going to hamper the trade deadline this year. I am a little confused as to whether pending UFA’s are considered part of your roster that you can expose if they finished the year with you. In other words, can you expose those guys who were on your roster at the end of the season that you do not have under contract for the next year? I ask because a requirement is X number of players at position Y must be “under contract in 2017-18”.

I think a handful of teams are going to escape relatively unscathed while some are going to be nailed losing a really good player, a prospect on the verge, and not get anything in return.

I sure hope the team has a different mindset this year. Streak or no streak, this is the part of the season that’s been in the back of our heads. Honestly, I have seen things these last 2-3 games that are a little concerning, especially against the Jackets. Dooby has let some soft ones in and the defense has had break downs. I think they scored 2 times on cross ice passes to uncovered players who fired into a yawning net. That’s something I hadn’t witnessed in a while.

Update on UFAs:

Free agent head-start: Las Vegas has a 48-hour period before the expansion draft to negotiate with and sign potential unrestricted free agents.

The unrestricted list this summer includes goalie Ben Bishop, defenseman Brent Burns. Kevin Shattenkirk, T.J. Oshie, Karl Alzner, etc.

If Las Vegas signs a potential unrestricted free agent in that period, the team can’t take another player from the player’s former team in the expansion draft.

Also it is thought that the Knights will grab vets with the intention of trading them for draft picks or prospects as expansion teams have done in the past.

So the trade deadline is going to be interesting. I actually don’t know how it will affect it. There are a ton of scenarios going through my head.

I guess it is good the league is trying to make them relevant right away, but I agree Pug, acquiring a player only to turn around and trade him seems like a one-sided deal that the original team gets hosed.

In regards to the Wild play lately, I haven’t been at all pleased with the D zone work and through the neutral zone. They need to tighten it up and get back to playing more shutdown style. Yeah, I like it when we score goals, but I like it less when we give up 4!

You guys may have seen this before, but I stumbled across it. Still makes me sad to this day.

I found that about a month ago. Very sad.
DT

another great showing today at the World Junior tourney…Kaprizov & Kunin scored so far after 2 periods…Greenway with an assist…Greenway has really been impressive to watch, his board/body skills are impressive for a 19 year old…Kunin reminds me alot of Mike Richards (which would be great) Kaprizov could be very special! hopefully they carry their tourney success forward!

regarding the x-pac draft, you know Vegas is drooling at the possibility of getting hometown boy Zucker, it would be a great story for their franchise and a good pick with the way he’s playing right now…if we wanted to keep him, who would the Wild unprotect to take Zucker’s place? Tough decisions…I expect you’ll see alot of deal making on agreements made of who they can’t take, all perfectly legal in x-pac draft…

Quite frankly I’d be happy if they took Zucker. It’s Haula, Coyle and Niño I worry about.

I was a huge fan when he had 20 goals in like 52 games before being injured.

I highly doubt that Vegas would pass on a better player just to get a hometown kid, but who knows. And if they let him play loose, he might be good for a new team.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

another great showing today at the World Junior tourney…Kaprizov & Kunin scored so far after 2 periods…Greenway with an assist…Greenway has really been impressive to watch, his board/body skills are impressive for a 19 year old…Kunin reminds me alot of Mike Richards (which would be great) Kaprizov could be very special! hopefully they carry their tourney success forward!

Erickson Ek has another goal and assist so far in the Sweed vs Canada game.

Why? No one stayed up to watch the game?

I awoke to pure bliss. USA and Wild win a couple gutty games.

I did.

Waayy to late for this guy.

I continued my streak of falling asleep halfway through the game. I think I’m on an 8 game streak….
DT

Those 10:30 starts a bit rough. I really wish I got to see the US win though. Had I attempted that, I would have been going to bed around midnight.

I can’t wait until next year and get back on Center Ice. The NHL TV is just not the quality I like, plus the commercial breaks are tedious. If I want flip stations and check something else out I have to change the TV source. Or if I am behind in a game, when I fast forward the screen doesn’t show the picture as opposed to when I have Center Ice.

Last night was one of the greatest nights of hockey I can remember in a very long time…unreal comebacks by the Wild and USA Juniors! I’m tired this morning, but glad to have watched both!

I made it thru the USA game and part of the Wild game, but 4:30am comes pretty early so I didn’t finish the Wild game.

The USA game was an absolute thrill to watch. 20 minutes of sudden death overtime and multiple chances by both teams to put it away. Super fun to watch!!!

USA vs Canada was one of the best hockey games I have seen in a LONG time! USA down 2 goals twice and came back to win. Nice to see Bellows break through for his first AND second goals of the tourney!
I tried watching the Wild, but after the USA game it just sucked everything out of me. The hero from the Russia game scored the lone goal in the shootout to win too! What a story that is as well. I am a bit disappointed that they decide a game like that in a shootout, but I wont complain with the outcome.

I wonder if those college players texting their coaches they are playing today sent another after the game saying, maybe not.

I chuckled when I heard that too Pug, about those players saying they would play tonight. They are kids afterall, but I bet they changed their mind.

CaptainMusky wrote:

I am pretty sure that Poms has a no move clause so he cannot be exposed in the expansion draft.
IDK the Vegas thing just may work but I doubt you will see them develop a real loyal fan base. They will fill seats from high rollers in town with comped tickets but real hockey fans might be few and far between.

That’s exactly what a friend and I were talking about, people on vacation will most likely account for a high percentage of butts in the seats.

We’ll see. Vegas is a obviously great destination game to attend. I hope that hey schedule all their home games against the East on the weekends.

When we went to the Tamps Wild game their were tons of people (mostly Canadians) from out of town attending. But we did see them over the New Years weekend. A weekday game in October or April might be different.

I think that they thought Az was going to be great with all the snow birds too. Unfortunately all the snowbirds are old enough to not care about their hometown team coming into town.

On a side note, my bros are going to Vegas in March. I’d love to put $100 on the Blue Jackets losing in the first round.

I also sincerely hope the Wild are not chasing the Presidents trophy near the end of the season. That title is worthless and a jinx.

mplspug wrote:

I also sincerely hope the Wild are not chasing the Presidents trophy near the end of the season. That title is worthless and a jinx.

I’ll take on that jinx if it means we have home rink advantage against the Hawks…

mplspug wrote:

You guys may have seen this before, but I stumbled across it. Still makes me sad to this day.

<div class=”oembed-wrap”><div class=”fluid-width-video-wrapper” style=”padding-top: 56.2352941176471%;”><iframe src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/txI16GT-P_M?feature=oembed&#8221; frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”” id=”fitvid21567″></iframe></div></div>

Very sad. I became addicted to painkillers for almost five years when I had bone cancer. I truly feel very sorry for anyone dealing with it, it’s horrendous. That was ten years ago.

belletaine wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mplspug wrote:</div>
You guys may have seen this before, but I stumbled across it. Still makes me sad to this day.

<div class=”oembed-wrap”><div class=”fluid-width-video-wrapper” style=”padding-top: 56.2352941176471%;”><iframe src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/txI16GT-P_M?feature=oembed” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”” id=”fitvid21567″></iframe></div></div>

Very sad. I became addicted to painkillers for almost five years when I had bone cancer. I truly feel very sorry for anyone dealing with it, it’s horrendous. That was ten years ago.

I couldn’t keep watching that video with dry eyes. It almost makes me angry that the wild are tied to this whole thing. It made me sad to think back at how the wild played off and portrayed him with his fighting. I loved every minute of it when he was here but now the reality of what that costs. Sad story.